Kunihito
Kunihito (Kunikata: 國人, literally "people living within city walls") are a Gao-Showa ethnic group native to western Dovani, including Sekowo, Mikuni-Hulstria, and the Great North Dovani Plain. Because of their use of Kunikata, which is of direct descent of the language used in the Empire of Gao-Soto, Kunihito is often considered the representation of the entire Gao-Showan ethnicity despite being less influential and numerous as the Indralans. During the Apartheid Era of Greater Hulstria, many Kunihito were being forcefully assimilated into the Hulstrian culture, although the social status of them has been increased since the end of the Apartheid, and they are in a (more or less) equal status with the Hulstrians. Although due to the Apartheid, Kunihito were no longer active in Hulstrian politics, they become very active in Sekowo, where they now form the majority and established what was at the time the only active Kunihito state. Name The term Kunihito (國人, クニヒト) means "people living within (city) walls" in Gao-Indralan languages. It has been used as the name of the Gao-Showan people in general since the early days of the Empire of Gao-Soto, where city-dwellers used it to distinguish themselves from the nomads (often called 野人, "wildmen") who lived in the wild. It was originally used to refer to the entire Gao-Showa ethnicity, but it is now only used to refer to Gao-Showan people living in mainland Dovani, as opposed to Indralans, who lived in Indrala. Gao-Showa is then used as an umbrella term for all related ethnicities descend from Gao-Soto. In the western world, the term Gishotoi is also used to refer Kunihito for a long time. The origin of this term is unknown, but it is believed that this was the result of an early attempt to transliterate Gao-Soto. Although Gishotoi has been used in records since the Luthori colonisation, it entered mainstream usage only since the Hulstrian Apartheid Era, where it is used as a pejorative term against the Gao-Showan population. Today, this term is considered pejorative, and is generally used only by Hulstrian ultra-nationalists. History Native Inhabitants of Northern Dovani, the exact history of the Kunihito is unclear. They are closely related to the Indralans, who some believe they are descended from whereas others believe they are descendants of people who travelled west across the sea from Majatra and Artania and that the Indralans are instead descendants of the Gao-Showa. Either way they settled around the North West Dovani Coast and the Sea of Carina around the year 600 in a land they called Gao-Soto. They were divided into several competing clans and fiefdoms though all swore loyalty to an Emperor who maintained his seat of power somewhere in modern Hilgar and all were united by following the Kamist religion. The first contact between them and the world outside of Dovani was Sir Christopher Dove's arrival on the new continent. They were soon decimated by the new diseases carried by the explorers and those that remained to the west of the Barrier Range were soon driven east onto the North Dovani Plain by Luthori Colonisation. By around 2100 there was a reasonable population spread across the Great North Dovani Plain until the year 2123 when a terrible drought led to a mass migration into what was soon to become the new Republic of Gishoto. The Gao-Showa were initially represented in the new Parliament by the Imperial Apparatus which wished to re-install the ancient position of the Emperor from a member of the imperial Meiji Clan, but they were overridden by the majority Gishoton population which installed an Emperor from the Luthori descended noble families of Hulstria. The Kunihito were greatly repressed during the years of the Holy Gishoton Empire, especially due to their Kamist beliefs which were in conflict with the Lutheran state religion. The Communist revolution did not offer much respite as all religion was outlawed and eventually Lutheranism was re-enforced. Over this period many Kunihito were killed or imprisoned until the collapse of the communist government that the Kunihito were able to openly worship freely and practice traditional beliefs within Gishoto. This revival under the leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Tokugawa Jiang was short lived, however. An even greater repression under the apartheid policy of the revived Hulstrian Royalists led to the discrimination and segregation of the Gao-Showa in their homeland. Many left Gishoto due to the harsh conditions they had been forced to live under due to apartheid. Just as Apartheid appeared to have reached new heights the Kunihito have re-established itself in Gishoto with the recreation of the Gao-Showa Peoples' Party under Emperor Meiji Takara and their subsequent electoral success led to the formation of Hulstria & Gao-Soto, a new nation where the Gao-Showa were ensured equal rights. Hulstria and Gao-Soto fell and was replaced by the Imperial Crownlands of Greater Hulstria. Although discrimination of the Kunihito was ended in this period and their participation in mainstream politics was increasing, public life was still dominated by their Hulstrian neighbours. This led to episodes of radical Kunihito nationalist movements like the Gekokujo gaining prominence in Hulstrian politics, despite attempts by the HDV and its predecessors to moderate the dispute. Overall, though, race relations improved, and the Kunihito became increasingly accepted and wealthy, though still less so than Hulstrians. When Gao-Showan nationalists seized power at the centre and created a new iteration of Hulstria and Gao-Soto, first under a dual crown for the Hulstrian Emperor, then under the Okatori Clan, this provoked new racial tensions. The ensuing breakdown of democratic politics led to an unexpected side effect when the September Revolution united the Hulstrian and Kunihito population to overthrow the regime. The charismatic leadership of the new Emperor Kurosawa the Great, who advocated harmony between the Kunihito and Hulstrians in a moderate Gao-Showan nationalism, and the ideology of Septembrism with its creed of "a land of two peoples, united and free", empowered and integrated the Kunihito to an unparallelled extent. A century after the September Revolution, the Kunihito had become more modern and forward-looking than ever before, and taken a generally more "Western" outlook while remaining proud of their heritage thanks to their closeness to the Hulstrians (this was brought to light by an international dispute between the Gao-Showan Emperor and his peer from Indrala ). In Sekowo, the Kunihito, although they constituted the majority of the population, did not become involved in central politics until the First Commonwealth period. The second ruling dynasty of Sekowo was the Gishoton Ishida Dynasty. The Sekowan Kunihito have been considered for a long time to be less conservative than their Hulstrian counterparts, although the Second Sekowan Empire was a Gao-Showa-led ultra-nationalist regime and the years that the Kunihito of Gao-Soto lived together with the Hulstrians after the September Revolution have westernised their culture considerably. Language Culture Religion Kamism is the traditional religion practised by a majority of Kunihito. While Kamism is believed to be developed by proto-Gao-Showan people from their world view in prehistoric times, Daenism is introduced to Kunihito during the times of the Empire of Gao-Soto from Seleya. The syncretism of both religions created a variety of belief systems, including Guidao of Indrala, Sindo of Drania, as well as Mazdâyanâ and Zenshō Daenism and so on. While most Kunihito are not religious in the same sense of western world, the philosophy and world view of these religions have been fused with their way of living for very long time, to the point one can argue that it is not a matter of whether a Kunihito believes in Kamism, but how aware and devoted one is of the Kamist world view. Society Relationship with Other Ethnic Groups Hulstrians The relationship between Kunihito and Hulstrians has been one of the most politicalised subjects regarding Greater Hulstria, for it is found upon the ruins of the Empire of Gao-Soto, and since then Hulstrian settlers have been occupying Kunihito lands. The distrust between the ethnicities reached a peak during the Apartheid Era, although the inter-racial relation have been recovering since the end of the apartheid. Since Emperor Okatori Kurosawa's heroic efforts for the restoration of democracy, which saw Gao-Showans and Hulstrians side-by-side, with some of the strongest support in Crownland Hilgar, tensions could be argued to be at an all-time low and rapidly falling. Welsh The Welsh is a semi-nomadic people from the Great North Dovani Plain, which has co-existed with Kunihito and other native people, such as the Kazulians, for centuries since the Gao-Soto Empire. This has led to some amount of native respect and a feeling of empathy for the Welsh races suppresion under the Dranians. Sécowonnais and Orincos The Sécowonnais and the Orincos, two of the native peoples of Sekowo, have had complex relations with the Kunihito. Until the Second Sekowan Empire the three groups generally coexisted peacefully, but during the ultra-nationalist regime relations were tense. Currently, the Sécowonnais and Orincos are subjected to a denationalization campaign by the nationalist regime in Sekowo. Category:Ethnic groups Category:Gao-Showa Category:Greater Hulstria Category:Sekowo Category:Dovani